arXiv subjects

Hossein Safari

Publications and source records attributed to Hossein Safari.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Age dating of an early Milky Way merger via asteroseismology of the naked-eye star $ν$ Indi

Over the course of its history, the Milky Way has ingested multiple smaller satellite galaxies. While these accreted stellar populations can be forensically identified as kinematically distinct structures within the Galaxy, it is difficult in general to precisely date the age at which any one merger occurred. Recent results have revealed a population of stars that were accreted via the collision of a dwarf galaxy, called \textit{Gaia}-Enceladus, leading to a substantial pollution of the chemical and dynamical properties of the Milky Way. Here, we identify the very bright, naked-eye star $ν$\,Indi as a probe of the age of the early in situ population of the Galaxy. We combine asteroseismic, spectroscopic, astrometric, and kinematic observations to show that this metal-poor, alpha-element-rich star was an indigenous member of the halo, and we measure its age to be $11.0 \pm 0.7$ (stat) $\pm 0.8$ (sys)$\,\rm Gyr$. The star bears hallmarks consistent with it having been kinematically heated by the \textit{Gaia}-Enceladus collision. Its age implies that the earliest the merger could have begun was 11.6 and 13.2 Gyr ago at 68 and 95% confidence, respectively. Input from computations based on hierarchical cosmological models tightens (i.e. reduces) slightly the above limits.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Energy Balance in Avalanche Models for Solar Flares

The distributions of solar flare energies and waiting times have not been described simultaneously by a single physical model, yet. In this research, we investigate whether recent avalanche models can describe the distributions for both the released energies and waiting times of flares in an active region. Flaring events are simulated using the modified Lu and Hamilton model (Lu and Hamilton (1991), ApJ, 380, 89) and also the optimized model (Farhang et al. (2018), ApJ, 859, 41). Applying a probability balance equation approach, we study the statistics of the simulated flaring events and investigate the origin of the observed power law in the flare frequency-size distribution. The results indicate that the power law originates in the distribution of transition rates (the distribution of the probabilities of transitions between different energies) rather than the distribution of the energy of the active region. It is also observed that the waiting-time distribution of simulated flaring events follows a q-exponential function which approximates a simple Poisson distribution.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

Transverse Oscillations of Longitudinally Stratified Coronal Loops System

The collective transverse coronal loop oscillations seem to be detected in the observational studies. In this regard, Luna et al. (2009, ApJ, 692, 1582) modeled the collective kinklike normal modes of several cylindrical loops system using the T-matrix theory. This paper investigates the effects of longitudinal density stratification along the loop axis, on the collective kinklike modes of system of coronal loops. The coronal loops system is modeled as cylinders of parallel flux tubes, with two ends of each loop at the dense photosphere. The flux tubes are considered as uniform magnetic fields, with stratified density along the loop axis which changes discontinuously at the lateral surface of each cylinder. The MHD equations are reduced to solve a set of two coupled dispersion relations for frequencies and wave numbers, in the presence of stratification parameter. The fundamental and first overtone frequencies and longitudinal wave numbers are computed. The previous results are verified for unstratified coronal loops system. Finally we would conclude that increased longitudinal density stratification parameter will result in increase of the frequencies. The frequencies ratios, first overtones to fundamentals, are very sensitive functions of density scale height parameter. Therefore, stratification should be included in dynamics of coronal loops systems. For the unstratified coronal loops system, these ratios are the same as monoloop ones.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

Kappa-Maxwellian electrons and Bi-Maxwellian protons in a two-fluid model for fast solar wind

Modeling fast solar wind based on the kinetic theory is an important task for scientists. In this paper, we present a two-fluid model for fast solar wind with anisotropic Kappa-Maxwellian electrons and Bi-Maxwellian protons. In the simulation, the energy exchange between the plasma particles and low-frequency Alfvén waves is considered. A set of eleven coupled equations is derived by applying the zeroth- to fourth-order moments of the Vlasov equation and the modified electromagnetic Maxwell equations. A characteristic of the Kappa distribution (indicated by $κ$ index) is explicit in the equation for the parallel component of the electron heat flux (parallel to the ambient magnetic field line) and differs from the equation derived for the proton heat flux due to the different nature of the distributions. Within the large $κ$ index, the equations for the two-fluid model tend to the equations obtained by the Maxwellian distribution. Using an iterated Crank-Nicolson method, the coupled equations are numerically solved for the fast solar wind conditions. We show that at (0.3 - 1) AU from the Sun, the electron density, components of temperature, and components of heat flux follow the power-law behavior. We also showed that near the Earth, the flow speed (electron or proton) increases with decreasing $κ$. We concluded that applying the small $κ$ index (the non-Maxwellian distribution), the extraordinary nature of the solar atmosphere, with its temperature of several million kelvin temperature for electrons, has been captured.

physics.space-ph↗

arXiv2019

Resonant absorption as a damping mechanism for the transverse oscillations of the coronal loops observed by SDO/AIA

Solar coronal loops represent the variety of fast, intermediate, and slow normal mode oscillations. In this study, the transverse oscillations of the loops with a few-minutes period and also with damping caused by the resonant absorption were analyzed using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images of the Sun. We employed the 171 $Å$ data recorded by Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO)/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) to analyze the parameters of coronal loop oscillations such as period, damping time, loop length, and loop width. For the loop observed on 11 October 2013, the period and the damping of this loop are obtained to be 19 and 70 minutes, respectively. The damping quality, the ratio of the damping time to the period, is computed about 3.6. The period and damping time for the extracted loop recorded on 22 January 2013 are about 81 and 6.79 minutes, respectively. The damping quality is also computed as 12. It can be concluded that the damping of the transverse oscillations of the loops is in the strong damping regime, so resonant absorption would be the main reason for the damping.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2018

Statistics of Photospheric Supergranular Cells Observed by SDO/HMI

Aims: The statistics of the photospheric granulation pattern are investigated using continuum images observed by Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO)/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) taken at 6713~Å. Methods: The supergranular boundaries can be extracted by tracking photospheric velocity plasma flows. The local ball-tracking method is employed to apply on the HMI data gathered over the years 2011-2015 to estimate the boundaries of the cells. The edge sharpening techniques are exerted on the output of ball-tracking to precisely identify the cells borders. To study the fractal dimensionality (FD) of supergranulation, the box counting method is used. Results: We found that both the size and eccentricity follow the log-normal distributions with peak values about 330 Mm$^2$ and 0.85, respectively. The five-year mean value of the cells number appeared in half-hour sequences is obtained to be about 60 $\pm$ 6 within an area of $350^{\prime\prime}\times350^{\prime\prime}$. The cells orientation distribution presents the power-law behavior. Conclusions: The orientation of supergranular cells ($O$) and their size ($S$) follows a power-law function as $|O| \propto S^{9.5}$. We found that the non-roundish cells with smaller and larger sizes than 600 Mm$^2$ are aligned and perpendicular with the solar rotational velocity on the photosphere, respectively. The FD analysis shows that the supergranular cells form the self-similar patterns.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2018

Principle of Minimum Energy in Magnetic Reconnection in a Self-Organized Critical Model for Solar Flares

Solar flares are an abrupt release of magnetic energy in the Sun's atmosphere due to reconnection of the coronal magnetic field. This occurs in response to turbulent flows at the photosphere which twist the coronal field. Similar to earthquakes, solar flares represent the behavior of a complex system, and expectedly their energy distribution follows a power law. We present a statistical model based on the principle of minimum energy in a coronal loop undergoing magnetic reconnection, which is described as an avalanche process. We show the distribution of peaks for the flaring events in this self-organized critical system is scale-free. The obtained power law index 1.84 $ \pm $ 0.02 for the peaks is in good agreement with satellite observations of soft X-ray flares. The principle of minimum energy can be applied for general avalanche models to describe many other phenomena.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Solar Flares Complex Networks

We investigate the characteristics of the solar flares complex network. The limited predictability, non-linearity, and self-organized criticality of the flares allow us to study systems of flares in the field of the complex systems. Both the occurrence time and the location of flares detected from January 1, 2006 to July 21, 2016 are used to design the growing flares network. The solar surface is divided into cells with equal areas. The cells, which include flare(s), are considered as nodes of the network. The related links are equivalent to sympathetic flaring. The extracted features present that the network of flares follows quantitative measures of complexity. The power-law nature of the connectivity distribution with a degree exponent greater than three reveals that flares form a scale-free and small-world network. The great value of the clustering coefficient, small characteristic path length, and slowly change of the diameter are all characteristics of the flares network. We show that the degree correlation of the flares network has the characteristics of a disassortative network. About 11% of the large energetic flares (M and X types in GOES classification) that occurred in the network hubs cover 3% of the solar surface.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Statistical Properties of Photospheric Magnetic Elements Observed by SDO/HMI

Magnetic elements of the solar surface are studied in magnetograms recorded with the high-resolution Solar Dynamics Observatory / Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager . To extract some statistical and physical properties of these elements (e.g., filling factors, magnetic flux, size, lifetimes), the Yet Another Feature Tracking Algorithm (YAFTA), a region-based method, is employed. An area with 400$^{\prime\prime}\times$400$^{\prime\prime}$ was selected to investigate the magnetic characteristics during the year 2011. The correlation coefficient between filling factors of negative and positive polarities is 0.51. A broken power law fit was applied to the frequency distribution of size and flux. Exponents of the power-law distributions for sizes smaller and greater than 16 arcsec$^2$ were found to be -2.24 and -4.04, respectively. The exponents of power$-$law distributions for fluxes smaller and greater than 2.63$\times$10$^{19}$ Mx were found to be -2.11 and -2.51, respectively. The relationship between the size ($S$) and flux ($F$) of elements can be expressed by a power-law behavior in the form of $S\propto F~^{0.69}$. The lifetime and its relationship with the flux and size of quiet-Sun (QS) elements are studied during three days. The code detected patches with lifetimes of about 15 hours, which we call long-duration events. It is found that more than 95\% of the magnetic elements have lifetimes of less than 100 minutes. About 0.05\% of the elements were found with lifetimes of more than 6 hours. The relationships between the size (S), lifetime (T), and the flux (F) for patches in the QS, indicate the power$-$law relationships $S\propto T~^{0.25}$ and $F\propto T~^{0.38}$, respectively. Executing a detrended fluctuation analysis of the time series of new emerged magnetic elements, we find a Hurst exponent of 0.82, which implies long-range temporal correlation in the system.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Complex Network for Solar Active Regions

Here, we developed a complex network of solar active regions (ARs) to study various local and global properties of the network. The values of the Hurst exponent ($0.8-0.9$) were evaluated by both the detrended fluctuation analysis and the rescaled range analysis applied on the time series of the AR numbers. The findings suggest that ARs can be considered as a system of self-organized criticality. We constructed a growing network based on locations, occurrence times, and the lifetimes of 4,227 ARs recorded from 1 January 1999 to 14 April 2017. The behaviour of the clustering coefficient shows that the ARs network is not a random network. The logarithmic behaviour of the length scale has the characteristics of a so-called \textquotedblleft small-world network\textquotedblright. It is found that the probability distribution of the node degrees for undirected networks follows the power-law with exponents of about 3.7 to 4.2. This indicates the scale-free nature of the ARs network. The scale-free and small-world properties of the ARs network confirm that the system of ARs forms a system of self-organized criticality. Our results show that the occurrence probability of flares (classified by GOES class C $> 5$, M, and X flares) in the position of the ARs network hubs take values greater than that obtained for other nodes.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

The effects of near-core convective shells on the gravity modes of the subdwarf B pulsator KIC 10553698A

KIC 10553698A is a hot pulsating subdwarf B (sdB) star observed by the Kepler satellite. It exhibits dipole (l = 1) and quadrupole (l = 2) gravity modes with a clear period spacing structure. The seismic properties of the KIC 10553698A provide a test of stellar evolution models, and offer a unique opportunity to determine mixing processes. We consider mixing due to convective overshooting beyond the boundary of the helium burning core. Very small overshooting ( f = 10^{-6} ) results in a progressive increase in the size of convective core. However, moderate ( f = 10^{-2} ) and small ( f = 10^{-5} ) overshooting both lead to the occurrence of inert outer convective shells in the near-core region. We illustrate that the chemical stratifications induced by convective shells are able to change the g-mode period spacing pattern of a sdB star appreciably. The mean period spacing and trapping of the gravity modes in the model with moderate and small core overshooting are fully consistent with the period spacing trends observed in KIC 10553698A. Atomic diffusion driven by gravitational settling as well as thermal and chemical gradients is applied to reach a better match with the observed period spacings. Models that include small or very small overshooting with atomic diffusion have a decreased lifetime of the extreme horizontal branch phase and produce chemical stratification induced by convective shells during helium burning phase. In addition of being consistent with asteroseismology, their calculated values of the R2 parameter are more compatible with the observed R2 values.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Prediction of Solar Flares Using Unique Signatures of Magnetic Field Images

Prediction of solar flares is an important task in solar physics. The occurrence of solar flares is highly dependent on the structure and the topology of solar magnetic fields. A new method for predicting large (M and X class) flares is presented, which uses machine learning methods applied to the Zernike moments of magnetograms observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) for a period of six years from 2 June 2010 to 1 August 2016. Magnetic field images consisting of the radial component of the magnetic field are converted to finite sets of Zernike moments and fed to the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Zernike moments have the capability to elicit unique features from any 2-D image, which may allow more accurate classification. The results indicate whether an arbitrary active region has the potential to produce at least one large flare. We show that the majority of large flares can be predicted within 48 hours before their occurrence, with only 10 false negatives out of 385 flaring active region magnetograms, and 21 false positives out of 179 non-flaring active region magnetograms. Our method may provide a useful tool for prediction of solar flares which can be employed alongside other forecasting methods.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Wavefunction Properties of a Single and a System of Magnetic Flux Tube(s) Oscillations

In this study, the properties of wavefunctions of the MHD oscillations for a single and a system of straight flux tubes are investigated. Magnetic flux tubes with a straight magnetic field and longitudinal density stratification were considered in zero-βapproximation. A single three-dimensional wave equation (eigen value problem) is solved for longitudinal component of the perturbed magnetic field using the finite element method (FEM). Wavefunctions (eigenfunction of wave equation) of the MHD oscillations are categorized into sausage, kink, helical kink and fluting modes. Concerning the amplitude location of the waves that arise from the flux tube, those waves are identified as body, surface, and leaky waves, appeared in the case of both a single and a system of flux tubes. Exact recognition of the wavefunctions can be used in coronal seismology and also helps to the future high resolution instruments that would be designed for studying the properties of the solar loop oscillations in details.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Extraction of Active Regions and Coronal Holes from EUV Images Using the Unsupervised Segmentation Method in the Bayesian Framework

The solar corona is the origin of very dynamic events that are mostly produced in active regions (AR) and coronal holes (CH). The exact location of these large-scale features can be determined by applying image-processing approaches to extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) data. We here investigate the problem of segmentation of solar EUV images into ARs, CHs, and quiet-Sun (QS) images in a firm Bayesian way. On the basis of Bayes' rule, we need to obtain both prior and likelihood models. To find the prior model of an image, we used a Potts model in non-local mode. To construct the likelihood model, we combined a mixture of a Markov-Gauss model and non-local means. After estimating labels and hyperparameters with the Gibbs estimator, cellular learning automata were employed to determine the label of each pixel. We applied the proposed method to a Solar Dynamics Observatory/ Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA) dataset recorded during 2011 and found that the mean value of the filling factor of ARs is 0.032 and 0.057 for CHs. The power-law exponents of the size distribution of ARs and CHs were obtained to be -1.597 and -1.508, respectively, with the maximum likelihood estimator method. When we compare the filling factors of our method with a manual selection approach and the SPoCA algorithm, they are highly compatible.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

Automatic Method for Identifying Photospheric Bright Points and Granules Observed by Sunrise

In this study, we propose methods for the automatic detection of photospheric features (bright points and granules) from ultra-violet (UV) radiation, using a feature-based classifier. The methods use quiet-Sun observations at 214 nm and 525 nm images taken by Sunrise on 9 June 2009. The function of region growing and mean shift procedure are applied to segment the bright points (BPs) and granules, respectively. Zernike moments of each region are computed. The Zernike moments of BPs, granules, and other features are distinctive enough to be separated using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The size distribution of BPs can be fitted with a power-law slope -1.5. The peak value of granule sizes is found to be about 0.5 arcsec^2. The mean value of the filling factor of BPs is 0.01, and for granules it is 0.51. There is a critical scale for granules so that small granules with sizes smaller than 2.5 arcsec^2 cover a wide range of brightness, while the brightness of large granules approaches unity. The mean value of BP brightness fluctuations is estimated to be 1.2, while for granules it is 0.22. Mean values of the horizontal velocities of an individual BP and an individual BP within the network were found to be 1.6 km/s and 0.9 km/s, respectively. We conclude that the effect of individual BPs in releasing energy to the photosphere and maybe the upper layers is stronger than what the individual BPs release into the network.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Solar Mini-Dimming Kinematics and Their Positive Correlations with Coronal Mass Ejections and Prominence

Solar mini-dimmings can be detect in the Extreme Ultra-Violet coro- nal eruptions. Here, sequences of 171 A images taken by Solar Dynamic Observa- tory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembaly on 13 June 2010 are used. In this special day, both of coronal mass ejection and prominence were observed. The average velocities and accelerations of 500 mini-dimmings which were detected using on feature based classifier (Alipour et al 2012) are studied. The large number of mini-dimmings shows positive accelerations in the beginning times as similar as Coronal Mass Ejections. On the the start time of prominence eruptions, the number of mini-dimmings is increased to a maximum values. There is a positive correlation between the kinematics of mini- dimmings and both CME and prominences. This study can be extended to understand the exact relationship of CMEs and mini-dimmings.

astro-ph.SR↗